Afghan War Anniversary

At least someone was out on the streets on the anniversary of the Afghan War yesterday.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/100709_protest_marks_afghan_war_anniversary

In the past few years, it has been fascinating to watch the country be muzzled by the new “no news” news which makes every issue a postmodern discussion of equal, red state/blue state opinions. More and more people now get their news from random internet sources who all have a point to push. Dialogue is dead. Everything is marketing.  

Meanwhile there was nary a peep of outrage around here yesterday, on the anniversary of the Afghan war — no lament over the fact that the government is still pouring billions of wasted dollars into the war and still wasting lives in their hopeless cause of domination. I am feeling sorry for Obama, since the previous regime alienated everyone who might have helped (like Iran, Russia, China) and decided we had enough wealth, power and the all-important juevos to fight a perpetual war on terror on our own. They propped up a fake, corrupt “democracy” (again)  and decided the dirt farmers of the Afghan hills would cower before their faceless weapons. Now what does a president do? A fabulous lack of wisdom, a tremendous act of godlessness (in the name of all that is good, of course) is hard to follow.

My sympathy notwithstanding, I am feeling a bit Jeremiah today, as my prayer book lead me to chapter 6:

I appointed watchmen over you and said,
`Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’
But you said, `We will not listen.’
Therefore hear, O nations;
observe, O witnesses,  what will happen to them.
Hear, O earth:  I am bringing disaster on this people,
the fruit of their schemes,
because they have not listened to my words

While I do not think we have responsibility for what the country does, no matter how many times they try to convince us that this is a democracy in some remote representative way, I DO think the people of God have a responsibility to tell others to “listen to the trumpet” and to blow it ourselves at appropriate moments of dire warning. I find it kind of scary when we don’t seem to be “feeling it.”

I suggest we take off our muzzles, slough off our apathy, renew our resentment of godless domination, stoke our concern for people languishing in ignorance of God and their plight, and make sure (at least!) to say a few words of outrage to people who need to hear them today. It might be a good idea to remind a few people that our government has sent soldiers to Afghanistan for eight fruitless years, now; and they are still adventuring in Iraq. Politically, it is disastrous; spiritually, it is hard (even on our least-Jeremiah-like day) to even imagine a connection to Jesus.

3 thoughts on “Afghan War Anniversary

  1. Blessings on you, Rod.

    (I note with curious interest myself in the header pic on your blog!)

    I’m hearing you on this one. Jeremiah; Ezekiel; the minor prophets. All strove in the proverbial wilderness toward stiffnecked non-listeners. I think about the ages of our boys who are now dying there today: they were 12, 13, 14 when this war started. And if they make it through this they may well be 22, 32, 42 (!) before we claim “success” in Afghanistan. Which looks like what? Roads? Growing wheat instead of poppy? Democracy? Something north of a 50% literacy rate? Girls in school? I feel conflicted about it all because while these are noble things they are (sometimes more successfully than others) being applied at the end of a muzzle or a sky-high drone.

    Is flashing a gun around on a new road you just built an acceptable means by which to create the environment where girls and boys can actually be able to read a Bible or at least not behead a Christian missionary?

    Jesus, give us wisdom and grace and mercy!

    Blessings.

  2. Thanks, Rod, for this potent jeremiad. It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years. For all the reminders of the eighth anniversary I heard yesterday on NPR, I heard all too little outrage among my fellow Christians. This was refreshing, and challenging.

  3. I consistently mention this to my students. It’s important to note that most people in America think the war with Afghanistan was the necessary one. Iraq receives a great deal of criticism; but, by and large, people this killing Afghans is justified.

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